Ray Stannard Baker Quotes

I'm a big believer in the value of labor unions and with what collective effort gets people.

The number of men out on strike exceeds that of any other industrial contest in the history of our country.

I think we will see a united labor movement again. When workers unite they're stronger. The same goes for unions.

Then came a big strike. About 100 girls went out. The result was a victory, which netted us - I mean the girls - $2 increase in our wages on the average.

I'm a lifelong believer in trade unionism.

The working class owes all honor and respect to the first men who planted the standard of labor solidarity on the hostile frontier of unorganized industry.

A divided labor movement hurts the prospects of union members and it makes me very angry.

The toilers have awakened to the new found power of organized effort.

We back Solidarity [the Polish trade union], and bust our unions.

The history of all countries shows that, by its own efforts, the working class can develop only a trade-union consciousness—that is, the realization of the need of getting together in unions in order to fight employers and to demand from the government the passing of laws necessary for the workers.

Power? Nine workers out of ten still unorganized, and union dues going to bribe middle class politicians. You call that power?

The picket line is the best place to train organizers. One day on the picket line is where a man makes his commitment. The longer on the picket line, the stronger the commitment. A lot of workers think they make their commitment by walking off the job when nobody sees them. But you get a guy to walk off the field when his boss is watching and, in front of the other guys, throw down his tools and march right to the picket line, that is the guy who makes our strike. The picket line is a beautiful thing because it makes a man more human.

And if you are going to truly stand with workers, it also means embracing solidarity, not attempting through lame talking points to pit union workers against non-union workers.

The men in the steel industry who sacrificed their all were nor merely aiding their fellows at home but were adding strength to the cause of their comrades in all industry.

If the workers took a notion they could stop all speeding trains; every ship upon the ocean they can tie with mighty chains.

The General Strike has taught the working class more in four days than years of talking could have done.

I am a proud trade unionist.

I believe in trade unionism, and I believe in democracy, in democratic trade unionism.

What one state could not get alone, what one miner against a powerful corporation could not achieve, can be achieved by the union.

Unions are about the collective leverage, the power of numbers versus the power of capital.

We make our own labor unions. We organize our labor into units of 300, and then the representatives of these 300 meet together every week. Then every fortnight they meet with the head men.

The labor movement has failed to capture the support of the public at large.

Trade unionism is not a discovery or a formula. It grew and evolved slowly out of the needs of human experience.

We were no experts in the field of labor organization, but we had something in common with our fellow workers -- we were all poor -- we were all overworked -- we were all victims of the 84 hour week. In fact, we were all so low down on the economic and social ladder that we had nowhere to go but up

The trade union, which originated under the European system, destroys liberty.